My Boys
by Jetshinsei
Summary: No matter what life had in store for her, she would always have her boys. Future fic.


**My Boys**

**_AN: Wrote this short a couple of months ago but since there wasn't a category for it, it's just been sitting in my Google Docs account. Props to h2o48 for requesting to have it created, because I sure as heck wasn't going to :P_**

Sitting with a cup of cheap beer on the back porch of a farewell party thrown by Stanley, I couldn't help but feel alone. This would probably be the last time this group of Normal Street residents would all get together considering that most of us were going to colleges hundreds of miles away. It was an eerie feeling to know that an important chapter of my life was quickly coming to an end. It felt more strange than anything I'd ever experienced-an incredible feat considering where I lived.

I leaned back against the steps and looked up at the sky. It was clear for once, giving me a perfect view of the full moon and the dozens of stars surrounding it. Normal Street may have been weird, mysterious, and at times downright scary, but no one could deny that it had the best night sky for miles.

"Hey, Mel, what're you doing out here?" a deep, somewhat sluggish voice asked from behind me. I could tell without turning that it was Gortimer just based on the slightly nervous way the question was asked. He'd changed in a lot of ways since we were kids, but when speaking with friends, he was always softer. Warmer. Unabashedly concerned for our well being.

"Thinking."

His tall frame stumbled down the short stairs, and I scooted over to make room as he plopped down in the empty space next to me. "'Bout what?" he asked, trying to keep himself upright.

My eyes glanced over to him. He'd lost most of his baby fat by now though his face retained its youthful roundness. His dark brown hair was tousled from whatever he'd been up to before his arrival, and I couldn't resist reaching over and straightening his bangs. I heard him suck in a quick breath of air and I quickly removed my hand, awkwardly placing it back in my lap.

"About how different it's going to be now without you and Ranger. I'm going to be completely alone for the first time at college, and...I don't know if I can do it."

"You're the smartest and strongest person I know. If anyone should be worried, it's us," he joked, laughing a little too much and too loudly thanks to the alcohol in his system.

"That's not true. You two help me more than you'll ever know." And it was the truth. I couldn't imagine where I'd be without them. Growing up most kids saw me as a gangly, slightly awkward, too-smart-for-her-own-good nerdy girl, but Ranger and Gortimer never made me feel as if I was anything less than their best friend. They even humored me when I went on my scientific or political rants which was more than I could say for pretty much everyone else I'd ever met. Parents included. They'd stopped thinking it was cute when I was four years old.

They'd saved me from being alone and taught me how to relate to people that maybe weren't quite as intelligent as I was, and for that I couldn't thank them enough. Very few people in the world could say that they had a loyal friend who'd be there for them under any circumstances, and I had _two_.

Gortimer looked down at his dirty Converse sneakers and shrugged. "Maybe. I still think you helped us out a lot more." He reached over and took the red plastic cup from my hands, downing half of the untouched contents in one long swallow.

"Drinking Mel's beer for her again?" an amused voice asked from behind us, snatching the cup from Gortimer's hands. I tilted my head back to watch Ranger finish off the rest of it, laughing at the way his face soured when he was done. "Yep, beer's still gross." He took the empty space on my other side and stretched his long legs out so that his heels rested against the grass below us.

Annoyingly, he'd had a huge growth spurt during our freshman year of high school, becoming the tallest member of our group and making me the shortest. He tried playing basketball with his new found height, but even height couldn't compensate for his lack of skill in the sport and he'd quit shortly after making the team.

I smiled at my two best friends. Knowing that I didn't want to drink my beer, they'd both done it for me without me saying a word. Sure, they could've just dumped it, but there was something more touching about them taking the blow for me.

I suddenly felt both of their heads leaning on my shoulders and couldn't stop the tears from seeping out of the corners of my eyes onto the skin of my thighs. I'd thought that only I was feeling upset about parting ways, but it was obviously hitting all of us hard. We'd been together nearly our entire lives, and now we were going to be spread hundreds of miles apart.

Ranger was going to spend his first year at the local community college while working in his family's bakery, Gortimer was going to UCLA's film school with the hopes of becoming a director of supernatural thriller films, and I was going to Harvard for my undergrad. We were taking three completely different paths in life with no guarantees that we'd ever be together in this way again and I hated it.

I didn't know how long we sat there on Stanley's back porch, listening to the thumping of the music inside, but eventually a buzzing from my phone forced me to sit up a little further to get to my phone. I glanced at the message and sighed. "Ranger, it's your girlfriend. She's wondering if I know where you are. Did you forget to charge your phone again?"

He sat up slowly and grinned, shrugging his shoulders slightly. "Nah, just didn't wanna deal with her so I turned it off. Guess I'd better try to find Sara before she finds me." He hopped to his feet and shoved his hands in his pockets, looking down at the two of us with an unreadable expression on his freckled face. "We've still got a week before you leave for Harvard so we'll hang out every day until then. It's a promise." He jogged up the steps and disappeared into the noisy house, leaving just Gortimer and I sitting on the steps that suddenly seemed too large.

"I guess I'd better get back inside too. I can feel my buzz wearing off and I don't want to be sober at all tonight." He unsteadily got to his feet and sighed again. "I've been thinking, lately, that maybe it'd have been better if we hadn't been best friends so that I wouldn't have to feel the way I do right now about splitting up. But…" he paused and looked down at me, an unreadable expression on his face. "These memories will be with me forever. Even after I get married, have kids, and am sitting old and decrepit in a nursing home somewhere, I'll always remember the crazy shit that went down on Normal Street with the best friends anyone could ever ask for."

He tousled my hair in the way that he _knows_ I hate and hurried inside before I could take a swipe at him, again leaving me sitting alone on the steps. Except I wasn't feeling quite so alone anymore. Gortimer was right; as long as I had the memories of the time we'd spent together on Normal Street I'd never be alone, and hey, there were always Skype video chats to tide us over until we could all be in the same place. This wasn't a farewell, it was a see you later.

With that thought in mind, I stood up to find my friends and rejoin the party, knowing that no matter what life had in store for me, I would always have my boys.


End file.
